MAMAKATING — The public was urged to stay vigilant last Tuesday night after the Bloomingburg Restoration Foundation (BRF) reported artifacts stolen from its museum, in what Mamakating resident and Foundation President Adrienne Jensen described as a deliberate theft, during the public comment portion of a brief town board meeting.

The incident was discovered prior to the BRF's monthly meeting the week before. Some of the missing items include a box containing 13 Native American arrowheads, an 1864 $10 bill, two $100 bills, a sword cane dating to 1832, a Civil War hat bearing a trumpet insignia and four Civil War buttons.

"There was no sign of forced entry," Jensen recounted to the board, adding that the missing artifacts appeared to have been specifically selected.

While she stressed that she wasn't blaming the town, she asked the board to keep the incident in mind in case any new information surfaced regarding the missing artifacts.

Councilman Michael Robbins explained that the town has just two keys to the museum building, one of which is in his possession and the other in the Supervisor's Office for use by the maintenance department, (with three seperate keys owned by the BRF membership).

"We're the only two," Robbins said, noting that neither he nor the maintenance department had entered the building since a water issue was remedied last year.

He also indicated that surveillance cameras mounted on the nearby Catholic church overlooking the museum's parking lot could provide investigators with potential leads, noting that the footage had proven useful during a previous break-in.

"I'm very distressed to hear that," Town Supervisor Peter Goodman said.

Robbins also told Jensen to "let us know" if the BRF needed any assistance from the town board.